Small though 13 Gypsies may be, with just seven tables and 14 seats and couple of years in business, it’s become a place that the top chefs in Jacksonville frequent on their days off. Not surprisingly, it’s the food that brings them back. By five o’clock savory smells are already wafting out of the kitchen. By the end of the night each table will be filled with patrons.
It’s a bistro in the classical sense of the word. Informal, small and a part of the neighborhood. The walls are filled with old black and white pictures of the Chef’s family, art (some of which was created by the Chef himself) and Catholic iconography.
Chef Howard Kirk doesn’t neatly fit into the stereotype of the typical chef. He’s tattooed and sports a lip piercing. But he has spent his time in the culinary trenches both in Europe and in Jacksonville.
He looks non-traditional, but his solidly Spanish and Italian dishes are just that: born of tradition. Chef Howard would rather capture the old ways of making a dish rather than letting those traditions dissolve an Americanized mish-mash of fusion cuisine.
While Chef Howard doesn‘t mind eating fusion, he says that “It just that it doesn’t speak to me as something I would want to prepare day-in and day out. I find true, traditional flavors and the carrying on of that to be very romantic when it comes to food. Fusion to me, is not romantic.”
Saying that something is traditional food doesn’t sound exciting or innovative, until you consider that almost every dish served in the U.S. is fusion. The majority of isn’t traditional because it is altered to suit American taste. Ingredients are changed for convenience and we are left with a dish, that while tasty, is nothing like what it would taste like in it’s country of origin. So when an American does taste a genuine Italian dish, it’s unlike anything they’ve ever tasted–and it’s not what most Americans would call unadventurous food. True, traditional food has not been a tradition for most Americans.
On these shores then, Chef Howard is a non-traditional traditionalist.
Learning Tradition
Chef Howard started cooking as a child in Spain, learning from his uncle, Chef Antonio Gomez. Chef Antonio is a renowned chef in his own right, who trained at a Five Star Hotel in the tourist town of Torremolinos, Andalucia after learning to cook in his mother’s kitchen.
Traveling gave Chef Howard the ability to refine his culinary tastes
Chef Howard moved from Spain to the United States during his early teens, taking the knowledge passed on to him by his Uncle and learning still more from his own mother.
When he was twenty-one he began traveling around Europe visiting Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. He trained in various kitchens, learning how to make sausage from scratch and tasting as many types of cuisine as he could. When he wasn’t cooking or eating, he was trying to get in the back door of European kitchens at restaurants where locals, not tourists, would eat.
“Everywhere I went,” says Chef Howard, “I tried to taste as much as I could and talk to as many people in the culinary world as I could.”
But unlike the celebrity chefs on shows such as Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation or Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, he didn’t have the advantage of advance scout teams or producers.
“It’s harder…You just have to throw caution to the wind [and just ask]…‘can I get in your kitchen and look around?’ Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
But he did find many independently owned bistros and chefs that were eager to share their spices, flavor and love for unadulterated regional cuisine.
Chef Howard Kirk, flan, howard kirk
While living in Munich, he trained with Chef Sergio Giancarlo, who was born in Sardina but grew up in Tuscany. Sergio’s restaurant is La Citta. It had and still has no set menu. All depends on what can be procured in the morning at market. From Chef Sergio he learned regional Italian dishes in traditional forms. It was from Chef Sergio that he learned to cook his celebrated Roman Gnocci, something that you’ll find on Chef Howard’s 13 Gypsies menu.
When he wasn’t learning in the kitchen, he began to explore the culinary landscape of Munich. To his surprise it was incredibly varied, from some of the most authentic sushi he’s ever had to genuine Afghani fare.
It was startlingly different than America. In Munich he found that “They didn’t cater to the local palate. If they do sushi, that’s what they do. You’re either going to like it and eat there or you’re not.”
Keeping recipes as close to tradition as possible is what chef Howard is all about
That devotion to authenticity and gastronomy unfettered by fusion was part of what helped him form the culinary philosophy he lives out each day at 13 Gypsies.
After leaving Munich he lived in Canada, specifically Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, falling in love with poutine (Canada’s exquisite answer to cheese fries). From there he arrived back in Jacksonville, helping to open his mother’s restaurant Sangria House for about five years before deciding to strike out on his own and open 13 Gypsies.
13 Gypsies
Chef Howard traces the established migration patterns of the gypsy population of Europe through his offerings. Despite dabbling in India and France, he solidly stakes the menu in Spanish and Italian traditions. Although some of the tapas are certainly hearty enough to make a meal out of, it’s all about the small plates rather than heavy entrées. The atmosphere is friendly and sometimes diners even pass food between tables, asking for recommendations from regulars.
Bread is an essential part of the meal for Chef Howard. “It’s just the way I was raised,” he says, explaining his commitment to cooking fresh bread daily. A meal is an incomplete thing without it. They make a European peasant loaf and flatbread from scratch. Bread is so important to him that he makes sure his loaves are vegan-friendly. Although he doesn’t have many vegan customers, he strongly believes that no-one should go breadless.
That’s not to say that he believes in eschewing meat. His menu is proof of that. The popular fresh sausage dishes are actually made from scratch, a rarity in most kitchens.
Out of towners should try the roman gnocchi as an introduction to 13 Gypsies fare. This savory dish can win over even a cynical diner.
At the meal’s end, the flan and the tres leche are favorites. The flan is perfect in texture and has a light, sweetness that doesn’t overpower. The tres leche banks on its creaminess, which buoys up the sweetness of the dessert.
Tables are in demand. Their short week (they’re open Tuesday-Sunday with a break between lunch and dinner) and low number of tables mean that locals feel lucky if they can get a table at the last minute. Most of their diners are savvy enough to plan ahead or call to ask if there have been any cancellations. So far they’re keeping the place small so it’s manageable and still in the parameters of a genuine bistro.
“I wanted to open something small, something that you’d more typically find in Europe, which is kind of a gamble…I thought it could work here, and thankfully, it has.”
Chef Howard Recommends:
If you can’t get a reservation at 13 Gypsies, here are a few local hotspots the Chef frequents and recommends.
La Cena has what Chef Howard calls “the most genuine Italian food in the city.” It’s expensive, but worthwhile for those with a discerning palate.
On the much lower end of the dollar scale, Chef Howard loves the downtown Burrito Gallery, which has local art on its walls and gigantic burritos on your plate. “It’s simple food, but sometimes simple is best.”
Orsay serves French soul-food in an admittedly swanky setting in Riverside. It’s one of Chef Howard’s favorites.
The mid-priced Chew stops short of being trendy because it‘s just so good. Beautiful plating, outstanding croque monsieur, nifty little salads, stunning sandwiches and “an excellent chef with formal culinary training,” make this a great place to nosh for Chef Howard and everyone else that happens to be downtown.
TRY A REAL CHEF HOWARD RECIPE